Long Sumac Poems

Absolute science and art of being whole
           at one and under no delusion that
           ...

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When I was very young
All I really wanted
To be was an Indian.
My mother always read to me -
Stories of fairies and elves,
Of princesses and ogres, witches,
And brownies who did good deeds.
Poems, “Wynken, Blynken and Nod”,
“The...

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Potato Mountain

I will arrive
an habitual escapee
from the rabbit warrens
of central planners

By ferreting north
in search of
breaks in the maze
rifts in the grid

I will follow
a stream beside
the climbing track
and yet higher

To a saddle below
the great ridge 
southward...

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OUR MASGOUF

The fishes have high wings, but they can feel our deep pain like sisters. Yes, we are the fishes’  brothers and any halo you may see in the dark night is a birthday...

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Slow Dancing the Past
            by Odin Roark

Shadows of yesterday frozen
Even as high noon’s blazing heat
Seems never to pass

Fixed sturdy upon Nature’s ties
Once shiny rails
Hard...

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Written: September 17, 2023
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In the misty, morbid moors of winter mantle,
Meadows lay barren in gray shades and prattle.
Skies, akin to canvas, drawn with grief and woe,
Skylarks seek shelter as spartan spurs stow.

Wind whispers weakly, a...

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The ground rumbles, ominously, I'm on the steep side of a Mississippi River Bluff, mid-August, gathering bursting crimson red trophies of Staghorn Sumac for my favorite sumac-ade, a spright, invigorating tonic I enjoy this time...

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Many many moons ago
leaving the porch
of a south-facing canyon,
I hiked to a place 
where the foothills
narrowed,

Where the asphalt road
ran astride the reservoir lake
into which kingfishers
dived at will,  
and Great Horned owls
hooted at passerby,

And crickets...

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I’ve seen her out there stretching and reaching
Word flights of whimsy ire and fire bare and brazen
Whilst I down  and clumsy totter to reason’s edges
Full of envy  wishing and craving for her way...

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How did a cherry kiss? Bitter flower petals with sweet pistils.
So laden they act as halos while we breathe the love
in a pink hollow, silence sounding like taste, acting like epistle
to hold this moment in...

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Picasso painted me ugly.
Two lips slung over a rusted hanger.
One eyebrow burnt for attention's sake.
Let's tell Grandma how much fun we had today.
Picasso is still at work.

Monet swallowed your stupidity.
Five teeth missing and nary a...

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Her touch is toxicodendron 
Piercing eyes that easily penetrate
vulnerable senses overrun
Seduction is her pearl hip-handle gun

Don’t trigger her flowering attention,
or you’re sure to get a flirtatious reaction
Poisonous pheromones in the breeze
has you paralyzed by her...

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Leaving my home in the city
Gray lonely,and faceless
When the sun did shine
We'd run to the corner of 166
By Moes candy store
And jump into our neighborhood pond
The local fire hydrant
We would Frolic as girls Jumped rope
and...

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black snakeroot, yew, cocklebur, poison (ivy, oak, parsnip, sumac, ryegrass, hemlock), blister bushes, daffodil, mayapple, lilium, jerusalem cherry, indian licorice, deadly nightshade, christmas rose, bleeding heart, asparagus berries, wolfsbane, tomato leaves, doll’s eyes, the suicide...

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How cool! 
this early summer evening
after a day so oppressive
even we New Yorkers move painstakingly.
The breeze in sumac trees
so why am I not more content? 
The electricity went off at the bank, 
spontaneous bank holiday,...

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Up in the willow climbing I go,
With the sky above and the earth below;
Each branch a step up to the sky,
Each step taken where feathered wings fly.

Up in the willow I see all around,
And all...

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Lagg Monster
Green squares not dots in a rows of barley moving time scrawling under neathe 
the nose of the miss users.  Pages torn from fingers cold and frozen. Entire cities 
disappearing people screaming at...

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A rifle is not the weapon of choice this year
I am not here to try to shoot a deer
My eyes, my ears, my camera are the tools I take
My desire is to discover incredible shots...

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Because I never talked to you
and now, it is too late,
things come easier.

In death
your face was briar,
umbra, half-smoked.

Now, framed in walnut,
you have no thoughts
of me or anything.

The rain molds earth,
the snow hermits you away.
Only the...

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The Gathering Time

Sweltering cloying wet heat.
Gladiolas in bunches displayed along the roadside by their handlers,
Covered only by sheets at night, restless, waiting for a breeze.
Beef steak fruit, sweet corn, black diamond melon sweetness.  

Then...

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Furiously blushing Sumac, 
blended with  yellow leafed maple
adorned with now naked vines.
Subdued in evening shadows falling,
the sound of whippoorwills calling
intoxicating the mind.
Fall’s lasting impression
speaks of higher design.

The small critters getting fatter,
looking for a warm...

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Memories of autumn linger still
The pale sun loiters on the hill;
A prodigal year now grown old
Is gathering all her days of gold.
Flocks of birds now eager to go
We share the dream with footsteps slow;
We meet...

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The woodland beckons me, calls me within
It's musical chorus can be barely heard
A mystical presence, a tone prevails in the wind

I stumble on wild thickets on the ground
Absent of pathways, thorny brambles instead
Moving along on...

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A statesman oak, in fall he spoke
to brethren of the wood.
Windblown vowels and fluttering jowls
deciduous he stood.
Calm and serene he argued green
for change, said change is good.
The Sugar Pine stepped out of line
and said he...

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"Lovely Lady, Lovely Autumn"
                   By Rachel Heffington

Lovely lady, lovely Autumn
May I take a lock of hair
From the...

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